Believed to be from the thirteenth of fourteenth century from the island of Crete.In 1499 it was placed in the Church of St. Mathew on Esquiline Hill in Rome.The church was destroyed in 1798 under orders from Napoleon.In 1853, at the request of Pope Pius 1X, the Redemptorist Fathers built a church next to those remains.A priest learned of the saved image’s whereabouts and asked the Pope to have the painting returned to where it had been for almost 300 years.Pius recalled having prayed before that very painting as a boy.The Pope commissioned the Order to preach devotion to Mary under this image.